Need ideas for non-excited husband - trip in October 2014

[Lupeix]

Everyone is different, but if he is like most husbands it may just be that he wants a "vacation" like my DH, you know the kind in which you sleep in and not rush anywhere. That is not easy at WDW, but it can be done with planing.

We went last year with DH and DS over the 4th of july, and he hated it, his statement was "it's not a vacation". It was hot and crowded and I insisted on doing rope drop since DS is an early riser, he felt he was always rushing around and staying in line. I am determined to make our trip next April a real vacation for him, we are also staying at WBC.

This is what I found helped DH get exited about going again:
- Pick a time of the year with lower crowds and nice weather, which you already did.
- Take grandma and grandpa to babysit but make sure there's enough room to be comfortable and no one is sleeping in the living room. To us this allows DH to watch late night TV is he wants, which makes him deeply happy. A WBC 2 bedroom deluxe with 4 adults and 3 kids is borderline tight. If possible have grandma and grandpa sleep with the older kids on the second bedroom and keep only the baby with you in the master.
-Take 1 or 2 days off
- Even then, try not to plan too many early mornings and let DH opt out of them if he wants. WBC has a shuttle, so the couple of days we are going to be doing rope drop, he is staying in and joining for lunch. He may decide to join us early when the time comes but having the choice is what matters to DH.
- If your DH likes to sit down for a meal, make sure you have ADRs. I planned at least one per day.
- Make sure you never stand in line for more than 15 minutes. It can be done. I find a subscription to touring plans well worth the money.
-Leave him out of the planning. Enjoying WDW requires planing, but DH doesn't have to know, and it will feel like magical pixie dust when things go smooth. I only ask him minimal questions about his likes and dislikes and take care of planning everything myself

Last, vacationing with young kids is always a lot of work and sort of stressful. Make sure you take advantage of grandma and grandpa babysitting more than one night. It makes my DH feel like he is not taking a second seat to DS knowing we will be going to a couple of adult only meals during the trip.

DH is starting to look forward to the trip. Thinking about spending the mornings in the lazy river and dining in Victoria and Albert's, as opposed to spending 50 minutes in line for Peter Pan.

 

[mnapatta]

I would just tell him that if he is not looking forward to Disney, he needs to take a good long look in the mirror and figure out what is wrong with him. (JUST KIDDING!)

 

[dvczerfs]

I would just tell him that if he is not looking forward to Disney, he needs to take a good long look in the mirror and figure out what is wrong with him. (JUST KIDDING!)

Lol. I was thinking the same thing!!! Where do you find all these men? Lol
That was the first question I asked dw before I bought a ring. Not religion, kids or politics. DO YOU LIKE GOING TO WDW? If the answer was no, I would have been out the door!! Lol it has all the qualities most men like. Food, girls, food, rides. Girls, food. Men are simple creatures. Stop trying to make it more complicated then what it is. Food, shorts, tank tops and rides. Lol ( I'm just joking around by the way. Good luck on converting these husbands over!! )

 

[GaBelle]

I'm in the camp of you don't need to "do" anything to get him more excited. In fact, it could have the opposite effect. From personal experience I believe the best thing to do is keep your fingers crossed and hope that he gets it once there.
My husband doesn't really get excited beforehand, but changes into a big goofy kid when we get inside the gates. He's perfectly content with me planning our trips with very little (miniscule) input.
Good luck OP and here's wishing he gets pixie dusted!

 

[jennyincolo]

Thank you for this - sounds like your DH is on the same page as mine. I'm going to check out some dining reservations for us for Sunday night (since the parks close at 7, and we are not planning to attend MNSSHP). Great advice!

Everyone is different, but if he is like most husbands it may just be that he wants a "vacation" like my DH, you know the kind in which you sleep in and not rush anywhere. That is not easy at WDW, but it can be done with planing.

We went last year with DH and DS over the 4th of july, and he hated it, his statement was "it's not a vacation". It was hot and crowded and I insisted on doing rope drop since DS is an early riser, he felt he was always rushing around and staying in line. I am determined to make our trip next April a real vacation for him, we are also staying at WBC.

This is what I found helped DH get exited about going again:
- Pick a time of the year with lower crowds and nice weather, which you already did.
- Take grandma and grandpa to babysit but make sure there's enough room to be comfortable and no one is sleeping in the living room. To us this allows DH to watch late night TV is he wants, which makes him deeply happy. A WBC 2 bedroom deluxe with 4 adults and 3 kids is borderline tight. If possible have grandma and grandpa sleep with the older kids on the second bedroom and keep only the baby with you in the master.
-Take 1 or 2 days off
- Even then, try not to plan too many early mornings and let DH opt out of them if he wants. WBC has a shuttle, so the couple of days we are going to be doing rope drop, he is staying in and joining for lunch. He may decide to join us early when the time comes but having the choice is what matters to DH.
- If your DH likes to sit down for a meal, make sure you have ADRs. I planned at least one per day.
- Make sure you never stand in line for more than 15 minutes. It can be done. I find a subscription to touring plans well worth the money.
-Leave him out of the planning. Enjoying WDW requires planing, but DH doesn't have to know, and it will feel like magical pixie dust when things go smooth. I only ask him minimal questions about his likes and dislikes and take care of planning everything myself

Last, vacationing with young kids is always a lot of work and sort of stressful. Make sure you take advantage of grandma and grandpa babysitting more than one night. It makes my DH feel like he is not taking a second seat to DS knowing we will be going to a couple of adult only meals during the trip.

DH is starting to look forward to the trip. Thinking about spending the mornings in the lazy river and dining in Victoria and Albert's, as opposed to spending 50 minutes in line for Peter Pan.

 

[jennyincolo]

Wow - I knew that Disboarders were the best, but WOW!

This advice is really great - I appreciate all the thoughts! The best place to start was asking "why are you not excited?" and what are you worried about? I'm keeping my distance and not over-hyping it - I LOVE to plan the trips (any trips, who am I kidding?) and I am trying to plan enough without too much.

DH wants some down time to relax (actually he wants a vacation without the kids, but that will be another trip). I think I can work that in, LOL. We don't have park hopper tickets, but finding a place to end the day with a beer sounds like a good idea. We are already planning the food & wine fest on Monday while grandparents were there. I think planning a couple more evenings out will be good - even if we call on-site babysitters.

I might have to visit the Dis-Dads as well for ideas. I did ask the DH what specifically he was worried about, and he didn't have really good answers. I think it's too far away to get excited about when his work schedule is overwhelming (I know it's only a couple months away, but he's got big deadlines between now and then, one is even at the beginning of October, of course).

Again - appreciate the great ideas and the sympathy, too. I think DH will have a good time, as long as I don't push anything too hard. That's a challenge for me when I get excited! Thank you thank you!!

 

[jennyincolo]

I suspect my DH will be the same way - just gotta back off and let him experience it...

I'm in the camp of you don't need to "do" anything to get him more excited. In fact, it could have the opposite effect. From personal experience I believe the best thing to do is keep your fingers crossed and hope that he gets it once there.
My husband doesn't really get excited beforehand, but changes into a big goofy kid when we get inside the gates. He's perfectly content with me planning our trips with very little (miniscule) input.
Good luck OP and here's wishing he gets pixie dusted!

 

[jennyincolo]

I think this is where we are - the trip is a LONG way away to my husband yet. (He wasn't the one ordering the guidebook 10 months in advance, LOL). Gonna try and stay low-key and do my research on fastpass, dining, etc. I think my husband hates "standing around waiting for something to happen" the worst. He's OK with lines, at least you're getting ready for something. When you are in paralysis mode waiting to decide, things get ugly.

Our kids went back to school this week - so to me, this trip is right around the corner! With a 15 month old, I'm not going to get time last minute to prep... gotta do it in bits and pieces along the way.

My husband wasn't excited about our first trip, either. He thought it was a bunch of hype. But after we went and had an amazing time, he totally changed his tune.

So my advice is...don't try to convince him ahead of time. Don't expect him to get excited. Just go with the flow and see what happens. I think you're more likely to set him up to be let down if you talk it up and try to convince him that it's going to be amazing ahead of time.

My husband is not super excited about our October trip either, while kind of bums me out here and there. The reality for him is, though, it's just too EARLY for him to get hyped up. Me, I've been hyped for six months! He will probably not get on the hype train until we're a week or less out, but I think he will eventually get excited. Might not be until the plane touches down in Orlando, though. Maybe your husband is the same way.

I would say try to not over hype it for him. Just let it happen. Probably the best time he will have is watching his kids have so much fun and him having fun with the kids. He just doesn't know what to expect so he can't get super excited yet. He'll get there.

 

[wasnotafan]

Check the user name. I started enjoying it when it actually became a vacation. Everyone is different but I usually work 50-60 hours a week so on vacation I don't want to be going 12 hours a day. If he likes fishing, golf, boating, etc there are lots of options or maybe he just wants to put his feet up and ride the monorail loop for a while.

 

[msmith27]

My husband was not excited the first year we went. I think he might have rolled his eyes when i talked about my excitement. Funny thing-he wanted to sign up for DVC the 3rd day we were there and we have gone every year since . He even buys disney clothes, watches, etc. Lol

 

[jennyincolo]

Your schedule sounds like my husbands - and it helped me remember that there is more than one way to enjoy a Disney vacation. I'm thinking that I should back off of the "command and conquer" mentality and just enjoy the fact that we are there. We don't have to close the parks every night to say it was a good vacation, lol.

He's going to love watching the kids have a great time - and I've made some more dining reservations for us so the kids can stay with grandma and grandpa in the evenings. Gonna keep the monorail idea in my head as a backup, too. We enjoy hiking, camping, outdoorsy stuff - and we're really bad at lounging. I think keeping an easy pace and rolling with the punches
might be the key to a successful vacation for us.
Thanks wasnotafan!

Check the user name. I started enjoying it when it actually became a vacation. Everyone is different but I usually work 50-60 hours a week so on vacation I don't want to be going 12 hours a day. If he likes fishing, golf, boating, etc there are lots of options or maybe he just wants to put his feet up and ride the monorail loop for a while.

 

[Mom22beans]

Oh, your husband and mine must be in cahoots! I am tempted to leave him behind and take my dad!!!!! Although it isn't his cup of tea- at least he would sit at the bar and get drunk and let me have fun with my kids!!!

 

[fairy oma]

We are in desperate need of a vacation around here, and I'm really looking forward to our trip at the end of October. And though he is excited about a vacation and a break, my DH is not overly excited about going to disney.

Some history:

We've been to JAX FL - year and a half ago - stayed in a rental, close to the beach, but it was first week of April, cold, and we were overcrowded with another family. It was cold and rainy and chasing a 4 and 6 year old on the beach was not a lot of fun. This was DH's only experience with FL. I went to WDW twice as a kid and loved it - I can't wait to take our kids. I know it can be a wonderful time - DH is not convinced. He's preparing for a let-down.

We now have a 1 year old to add to the mix - so our kids will be 7, 5, and 15 months when we go.

Details about our trip:
We are booked at Wyndham Bonnet creek with a 2 BR deluxe, and my parents will be staying with us for a couple of days (to help with kiddos and see the parks as well). We will be staying a total of 7 days, we have 5 day (non-hopper) park tickets. I am planning a couple of "days off" from the parks during our stay.

What I would love to hear from Disney fans:
1. Has anyone else successfully taken a non-Disney fan and still had a good trip? What strategies did you use?
2. Anything that we should absolutely not miss that will make DH happy with the trip?
3. Anything we should avoid?

I am planning to use the UnOfficial guide for a day planner to avoid lines, we have one ADR at Boma, and I hope to get a night out at the Epcot food & wine festival while my folks are with us.

Any and all advice is appreciated. DisBoarders are the best!!

My DH was not excited at all when we went to WDW for the 1st time in Sept. 2013 with DD, SIL, and DGDDs. He was so unenthused about going I debated getting him a Grumpy t shirt to wear. The 1st evening we were there we went to MK for the parade and fireworks and he was so enthralled by the technology used for the fireworks and utilizing the CC as a canvas...he drank the Mickey koolaid and he thoroughly enjoyed himself. Seeing the DGGs reactions to everything was icing on the cake. When we got home he said it was the best vacation he has ever had.

Try to get an evening out by yourselves so that you can be kids at Disney and not Mommy and Daddy all of the time.

He will come around...have a great time.